David

Earthball fungi on the ground at Himley Plantation – probably common earthballs. In some of the specimens, it’s just possible to see the hole on the apex of the fungus where the spores come out, powered to start on their way when a heavy raindrop lands on the fungus.

The outer cover of the fruit on the Newbridge spindle tree which has been gradually ripening for several weeks, has now finally developed itsd bright pink / red colour. In the first of the fruits, that cover is opening to reveal the orange interior.

Growing from one of the silver birch trunks which mark the edge of the paths in Old Nursery Wood, a bracket fungus, a birch polypore by the side of the shortest path between Old Nursery Pond and Willow Pond.

One of the other names for this fungus is the razor strop fungus. At one time, they were used to sharpen the edge of old-fashioned cut-throat razors.

Shaggy inkcaps, probably the largest, reasonably common mushroom-shaped fungus likely to be seen around. This is their season. Akll but one of these had emerged so recently that their caps hadn’t yet flattened and spread. They were by one of the pools in Himley Plantation.

The leaves of a lone bogbean, growing between the bulrushes at the edge of Old Nursery Pond, and the water lilies further out into the water.

Another mushroom species I failed to identify, even though they have a piecrust look to the rim of the cap. Quite a lot of them were scattered around, seemingly at random, in the woodland right behind Old Nursery Pond